When people talk about the most influential comics of the last 30 years, they often namecheck Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns. Yet if the UK small press scene is anything to go by, I'd put Grant Morrison's seminal run on Doom Patrol high up on that list as well. That book certainly had a huge impact on me and I know Spandex's Martin Eden rates it highly as well. Now here comes Grant Springford, writer/artist of The Abnormals, a book which wears its Doom Patrol influence shamelessly on its sleeve - and that's no bad thing for fans of kooky, off-kilter super-hero fun.
The Abnormals Special #1 introduces us to a weird bunch of characters such as Meena Malhotra, Angie Gray (she's not an alien), Throwback, The Link, Nasty (Nastiorumbalokey) the imp and Jack Patch... and now I'm itching to read more. There's a good bit of set-up and foreshadowing as you'd expect from a first issue, but there's also a full story featuring a spooky threat on the London underground, savage poltergeists made up of lost property and despair. Grant's art is striking and vividly coloured and the script is sharp and intriguing.
Feeling Abnormal? Find out more here.
